Just Say No To UHT Milk | Food Renegade Just Say No To UHT Milk by Kristen Michaelis 203 Comments | Affiliate Disclosure I’d been a raw milk drinker for years. Yet I hadn’t expected to respond so negatively to the glass of Horizon organic milk my friend poured for me. After all, that’s what I’d drunk for years before making the switch to raw milk from grass-fed cows. “Yuck. This tastes burnt!” I said. That’s when I saw it. The milk had been ultra-high temperature pasteurized. In fact, more than 80% of the organic milk sold in the U.S. is UHT pasteurized. It’s why I don’t drink organic milk. What is UHT Milk? The official U.S. government definition of an ultra-pasteurized dairy product stipulates “such product shall have been thermally processed at or above 280° F for at least 2 seconds, either before or after packaging, so as to produce a product which has an extended shelf life.” Get this. According to Wikipedia , UHT milk has a shelf life of 6 to 9 months (until opened).

When the world’s foremost UHT milk processor, Parmalat, first introduced UHT milk to the U.S. market back in 1993, they hit a snag. Americans distrust milk that hasn’t been refrigerated. We like our milk cold, and UHT milk doesn’t need to be refrigerated. So, milk producers got creative. They could extend the shelf life of their product and not advertise that they were doing it. They’d sell the milk in normal packaging, in the refrigerator aisle, and none of us would be the wiser. Now, almost all of the organic milk and the majority of conventional milk available in U.S. supermarkets is UHT processed. What’s wrong with UHT processing? The introduction to a 2005 study published in the Journal of Dairy Science highlighted the current problems with UHT processing from an industry point of view: Often, heat treatment causes milkfat globule membrane proteins and whey proteins to unfold such that buried sulfhydryl (-SH-) groups, normally masked in the native protein, are exposed to the outer surfaces ( Hoffmann and van Mill, 1997 ).

In turn, these processes produce extreme cooked flavors, often attributed to changes in the sulfhydryl and disulfide content of the protein fraction ( Swaisgood et al., 1987 ). Conventional pasteurization methods have long been in place and with the advent of UHT technology, the sterilization of fluid milk was achieved using higher temperature treatments for shorter periods. However, shelf-stable milk has met with limited acceptability by the consumer, especially in the United States, due in part to a high cooked flavor. Several attempts to improve the quality of UHT-treated milk products proved successful to varying degrees. Previously, Swaisgood and coworkers used immobilized sulfhydryl oxidase to reduce the thiol content of UHT-heated skim milk and described an improved flavor after enzymatic oxidation to form protein disulfide bonds ( Swaisgood et al., 1987 ). Other studies have showed that altering UHT processing parameters, such as indirect vs. direct steam injection systems, cooling rates, and long-term storage conditions have a significant impact on sensory attributes ( Browning et al., 2001 ).

Most recently, epicatechin, a flavonoid compound, was added to UHT milk prior to heating, and the results revealed partial inhibition of thermally generated cooked aroma ( Colahan-Sederstrom and Peterson, 2005 ). So for decades, UHT processors have known that UHT processed milks results in a “high cooked flavor,” and they’ve done all kinds of experimenting to get rid of the nasty taste and smell (even resorting to adding flavonoid compounds to the milk to try to negate the off-flavor). Okay, so it tastes funny compared to raw milk. And maybe it smells funny too. But what makes UHT processing any worse than regular old pasteurization? According to Lee Dexter, microbiologist and owner of White Egret Farm goat dairy in Austin, Texas, ultra-pasteurization is an extremely harmful process to inflict on the fragile components of milk. Dexter explains that milk proteins are complex, three-dimensional molecules, like tinker toys. They are broken down and digested when special enzymes fit into the parts that stick out. Rapid heat treatments like pasteurization, and especially ultra-pasteurization, actually flatten the molecules so the enzymes cannot do their work.

If such proteins pass into the bloodstream (a frequent occurrence in those suffering from “leaky gut,” a condition that can be brought on by drinking processed commercial milk), the body perceives them as foreign proteins and mounts an immune response. That means a chronically overstressed immune system and much less energy available for growth and repair. ( source ) Now, that’s scary. No wonder more and more people are starting to think of themselves as intolerant to casein (the protein found in milk). Not only do pasteurization and UHT processing kill off the enzymes present in milk needed to digest the casein, the casein itself is altered to the point of being indigestible! So now you know why I don’t buy organic milk at the store — even when I run out of raw milk. If you want more help deciding how to prioritize your milk purchases, check out this post on Healthy Milk: What To Buy . Edited on 6/4/2013: Thanks to many reader comments, I’ve removed one erroneous paragraph in the original post! In it, I quoted a prominent leader in the real food movement about using UHT milk in ferments like yogurt or kefir.

I no longer agree with the quotation, so I’ve simply deleted it. Thank you all for being such a thought-provoking and challenging community! All the best, ~Kristen Related What does "organic milk" mean? (And other dairy terms) What does "organic milk" mean? (And other dairy terms) Consumer Reports News: September 22, 2010 05:08 AM Earlier this year, the Department of Agriculture clarified the amount of time cows that produce organic milk must spend grazing on grass. By July 2011, they must have year-round access to the outdoors, access to pasture during the grazing season, and a specified minimum intake from pasture grown without synthetic herbicides and pesticides. They also must not have been treated with hormones or antibiotics. Can people taste the difference between oragnic and non-organic versions? To find out, the testers at Consumer Reports bought eight brands of 2 percent milk, four conventional and four organic; poured samples into cups; and had 112 employees taste all the milks. The staffers were no better than random guessers at telling which were organic.

That's not surprising, because feed and pasteurization type are apt to play a big role in taste. Here are other terms to know when you're in the dairy aisle: Whole milk. It has slightly less than 4 percent fat. One cup has 150 calories, about half from fat, plus vitamin D and about 300 milligrams of calcium. Whole, reduced-fat, and skim milk all provide similar amounts of protein, calcium, and vitamin D. 2 percent milk. A cup has 120 calories, about a third from fat. 1 percent milk. A cup has 100 calories, about a fifth from fat. Nonfat or skim. A cup has 80 calories, none from fat. And how does a company create fat-free half-and-half? By adding stuff such as corn-syrup solids, artificial color, and sugar to nonfat milk. Pasteurized. Milk has been heated to at least 161° F for at least 15 seconds or 145° for 30 minutes. Ultrapasteurized, aka UHT. Milk has been heated to at least 280° for at least 2 seconds.

Ultrapasteurized milk will often have a more "cooked" flavor than pasteurized, according to Cornell University's Department of Food Science, but lasts longer before turning sour. Raw, aka unpasteurized. Because raw milk can harbor harmful bacteria, the Food and Drug Administration recommends against drinking it. (Learn more about raw milk .) rbGH. Recombinant bovine growth hormone is an artificial, genetically engineered drug designed to increase milk production (by an estimated 10 percent). Its use was approved by the FDA in 1993. Most industrialized nations and all 25 members of the European Union have not approved its use because it can sicken cows. (And Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, has said that rbGH shouldn't be allowed in the U.S.) Lactose free. Some people can't digest lactose, milk's dominant sugar, because they lack lactase, the enzyme needed to break it down. Lactose intolerance causes gas and diarrhea. Tryptophan. It's an amino acid in milk that the body turns into sleep-promoting serotonin. Whether there's enough in a glass of milk to aid sleep is debatable. Soy milk.

Plain soy milk has about a third fewer calories than whole milk but similar levels of calcium, protein, and vitamin D; negligible saturated fat; no cholesterol; and no lactose. If not labeled organic, it probably contains genetically modified soy. Sell by. Milk should stay fresh for two to five days after this date, according to Cornell University's Department of Food Science, but once opened should be used as soon as possible. Unopened ultrapasteurized milk in sterile (aseptic) packaging can last several months unrefrigerated, but once opened, drink it within 7 to 10 days. The ideal temperature for storing milk is between 34° and 38°, Cornell says. Source. You can find out where the milk you buy comes from by going to and typing in a code from the carton. What is UHT Milk? What is UHT Milk? 0 0 SOSUA, Dominican Republic- This is the future of milk: it is called UHT milk or long life milk. It comes in a box, it can live without refrigeration for 6 months until opened.

It can be shipped far from its source of production, it can be traded internationally, it saves money that would otherwise go towards preservation, and reduces loss through spoilage. This kind of milk has quickly become the standard in many Latin American, European, and Asian countries. Any traveler who consumes milk will drink UHT milk when traveling, it is the standard. Box of UHT Milk in the Dominican Republic UHT milk is vastly cheaper to purchase than fresh milk, and it is cheaper to ship and store due to its lack of refrigeration needs. It is also said to be better for the environment because it does not necessitate the mass use of refrigeration prior to sale and, apparently, reduces the amount of greenhouse gases emitted from milk production. In Belgium, France, Portugal, and Spain UHT milk consists of over 90% of the total milk consumed. I project that these numbers are similar for many Latin American and Asian countries as well. I once tried to avoid this milk, it came in a box and I thought it was full of chemicals and preservatives. I thought wrong. I brought home a liter box of long life milk yesterday from a corner store in the Dominican Republic, and my wife shot it a rather hairy sort of eyeball.

“It was the cheapest they had and it says that it doesn’t have any chemicals or preservatives on the box,” I explained my purchase. “Then how do they keep it from spoiling if it doesn’t have any preservatives?” Chaya asked skeptically, knowing well that this long life milk sits on grocery store shelves for a very long time. I could not answer Chaya’s question. If the milk did not need to be refridgerated, then it must have chemical preservatives in it, right? Milk is still perishable, right? Apparently, I am wrong. UHT milk free of additives and conservatives Chaya put UHT, or long life milk, up on the inspection block. This is what she found: UHT stands for “Ultra High Temprature processing,” which is just another way of heating milk to kill bacterial spores. In the pasteurization process, the milk is heated to 72°C (161.6°F) for at least 15 minutes, whereas the UHT process heats the milk at 135°C (275°F) for one to two seconds.

This flash of extreme heat is said to kill off any spores in the milk, and is currently a process that is being used for other products such as fruit juices, cream, yogurt, wine, and soups. UHT milk tastes different than its pasteurized milk cousins — it tastes like it comes from a box — it tastes burnt. But the economic incentives behind producing, shipping, selling, and buying this type of milk is quickly making it the global standard. England recently tried to put forward a motion to convert 90% of the milk sales in their country to the UHT variety under the banner of reducing greenhouse emissions, and many other countries — particularly those in warmer regions where refrigeration is challenging and expensive — this UHT milk is now known only as “milk.” Ingredients of UHT milk UHT is the name of milk on planet earth, and I predict that it will soon constitute 90% of all milk sales in virtually every country on the planet where commercial dairy products are bought and sold. Like most else that is fresh, wholesome, and good tasting, pasteurized milk is meeting its extinction to give life to its more economical, longer lasting, boxed doppelganger.

Just as pasturized milk sent truly fresh milk to the golden aisles of the health food store and back corner of the farmer’s market, UHT milk is making pasturization a practice of the past. There is information to the contrary, but it is my impression that UHT milk is virtually the same as pasteurized milk nutritionally. The same voices who say that the pasteurization process rearranges the protein structures of milk say that the UHT process does this even more. They may be right. But what I do know is that under the banner of saving money and convenience, taste, as well as nutrition, will always be sacrificed. “Price is right” is the true inter-cultural mantra of planet earth. I am a traveler, I drink the same things as the people in the country I am traveling in. I want to save as much money as I can today so that I can travel another day. I too, drink boxed milk. Sources Reply SOCAME GLOBAL CONCEPT LTD I want to go ın to the ımportatıon and of UHT MILK.BUT some one told me that ıt ıs HARMFUL/POISONOUS to drınk UHT MILK WITHOUT BOILING IT..

and also would lıke to know whıch ıs Rıcher..UHT MILK OR THE PASTURISED? HENRY Reply Wade | Vagabond Journey.com No, UHT milk is not dangerous to drink, it is virtually the same as “regular” milk. It has just been pasteurized differently. Reply Gary Wade, we returned to the US a few months ago after having lived overseas for several years. (In Australia and even Hong Kong, the places where we were based, UHT milk is not very widely consumed.) Landing in New York after such a long absence we were confronted by making new brand choices in many supermarket categories. Two things that struck me in the grocery store were (a) the proliferation of milk labeled as organic and (b) a tremendous discrepancy between expiration dates — some within a week, others two months away. Looking closer one sees that some of the milks (all refrigerated and in traditionally-shaped milk cartons) indicate they pasteurized while some are called “ultra-pasteurized”. Wow. In other words, these products are UHT milk without the UHT name and packaging, sold alongside the other refrigerated dairy products so we consumers will not think they are any different.

Kudos to the dairy farms here in the northeast that rose to the challenge of marketing UHT milk to resistant American consumers. No one in our house drinks milk straight; we mostly use it in coffee — so we haven’t had the opportunity to notice the difference in taste. However, after reading your well-reasoned blog along with Wikipedia and a couple of ranters against UHT, I think a side-by-side taste test is in order. For those of us who are in places where refrigeration is not an issue and who have easy access to locally-produced (low carbon footprint) dairy products, the advantages to UHT appear to be minimal and may indeed take a back seat to the subjective question of flavor. Thanks for organizing this discussion. Gary Wade | Vagabond Journey.com Hello Gary, Thanks for this information on how UHT milk is being introduced in the USA. I think one of the major advantages of it is that it does not need to be refrigerated during storage and shipping and that it does not need to be rushed to retail, so it is probably saving the milk companies tons of money. It is interesting that they are putting it in standard milk cartons and refrigerating it in stores so the American public does not know the difference haha.

It is my impression that UHT milk does not necessarily taste bad, it just tastes a little different. I think I have become use to it by now — like I was to eating canned green beans as a kid — and just take its taste as being that of “milk.” But I would imagine that if the milk companies are attempting to trick the American public into drinking UHT milk that they probably do something to try to make the taste match what the population expects from milk. Good observations, this is really interesting. From the standpoint of where we stand in the USA today — a big country, but one that is still possible to get across relatively quickly — I suppose UHT milk is the way of the future. There is going to be an interesting reaction when the American public realizes that they don’t need to refrigerate the stuff before it is opened. Thanks for the comment. Reply Wade | Vagabond Journey.com Yeah, UHT milk is definitely something that you have to get use to — like canned vegetables — but once you do it just becomes the taste of “milk.” As I travel, I find that UHT milk is quickly becoming the global standard, and I now know its taste as being the one that I attribute to milk.

I am sure people made the same adjustment when dairy farmers began pasteurizing their milk, or skimming the fat from it. Though I do think that I miss a good glass of old fashion milk like I grew up drinking. Reply redlegdvldg The U.S. Military has had the UHT milk for quite awhile. I drank it when I was in back in the ninties, and I know they have had it for awhile. It is better warm or with flavoring. I love this stuff. Reply Joni Villegas This is a very commendable information about UHT milk. My wife is always using this kind of milk and she is stocking one dozen every time the product is on sale and she told me it is a long life milk and i don’t mind about it. I just use them without complaining. Now i know what is UHT Milk from your very good explanation. Thank you and for sure i’ll be recommending usage of UHT Milk to my friends and associates and to open your website. The Force be with you. joni,NZ Reply Dan Just read this article as I tentatively tried my first sip. In Barcelona and its just impossible to find the fresh kind.

Doesn’t taste half bad and yes so cheap. Now just need a bit more research on what all these spanish labels are, I think that was skim. Reply Wade | Vagabond Journey.com Whole milk is “Entera,” 2% (or so) is called “Semi-Entera” and I think skim is called “Sin Grasa.” Reply Wibb Actually 2% is semi-desnatada and skim is desnatada. The nata part of the word means cream so skimming the cream off of the whole milk takes out the fat basically. I have lived in Galicia almost 8 years and see fresh milk pretty much in most large chains. It is just not consumed so much and therefore they have small stocks and you don’t find it in many of the smaller chains. I sell about 20,000-25,000 liters a month of the UHT stuff and as I have said before it is very good. It would probably cost me anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 dollars a month just to be able to carry fresh milk. Not to mention the additional carbon added to the environment.

It is truly is a crime that the United States does not obligate milk producers to go over to UHT. After the unpopular (and it surely would be with lobbyists doing their best to preserve the status quo – no matter the cost) change for producers in terms of cost, the country would see a real benefit from not having to refrigerate this stuff and have it delivered to stores in a matter of hours after it is pasteurized. Think of the savings in electricity and carbon usage. Here in Spain I get to store all of my pallets of milk at room temperature! I can wait weeks before I sell all of it! You have to work in this industry to understand what that means!!! Everyone should push hard for this kind of change. I matters more than selling a million Toyota Priuses. Reply Wade | Vagabond Journey.com Very true. It often takes time for culture to catch up with technology, but within the next 10 years I predict that 80% of the milk bought in the USA will be UHT. The problem is that most people don’t really know what the stuff is. It is my impression that they think it is full of weird chemicals and preservatives — as I did before researching it.

With a public education campaign I believe that the changeover will come. Reply oscar Interesting. In Australia, I recall when they introduced UHT milk, the marketing said it stood for ‘Ultra High Tension’, explaing that they had treated it in such as way that the molecules were re-arranged so the bonds between them were stronger and bacteria couldn’t break it down so easily – that’s why it lasted so long. That creeped people out and sales weren’t great. Then they re-badged UHT as ‘Ultra Heat Treated’, and sales went up cos heat ain’t so bad as rearranging molecules. Now every one thinks it is ultra heat treated – did they change the process or is this just a marketing con? To decide for yourself, I suggest you do this test: If you try and make yogurt (ie boil the milk for a bit, let it cool to around 50 degrees, add starter culture and keep it warm for 6 hours) out of normal milk, it works fine. If you try with UHT milk, it won’t work!

The good bacteria just cannot get a hold on the UHT milk – this suggest to me that there is something else done to the milk – not just a simple heat treatment. Also, slowly boil some fresh milk and some UHT (simmer for 15minutes), then put them side by side and leave – see which goes off first – the UHT still lasts days longer before it slowly goes off (unlike the fresh which may be off in a day or so, depending on conditions). To me common sense says there is more to the story than just heat treatment! Reply oscar I just read some scientific papers from a conference and it seems that neither pasteurisation nor UHT kills all the bugs in fresh milk – especially bacillus spores. that might explain the difference you will get in the tests I mentioned above. Perhaps also, UHT is ultra high temperature processing AND this process happens to increase the molecular tension – so a marketing dept may have chosen the wrong characteristic to start marketing this stuff in Australia (without actually lying about anything – just being selective, but getting it wrong in thinking people would prefer ‘high tension’, to ‘heat treated’?).

Reply Wade | Vagabond Journey.com I am not a scientist here, but I do know that when high temperature/ quick exposure cooking methods are applied to other foods — such as in a lot of Chinese cooking — the structure of the food itself is different than longer duration, lower heat cooking methods. Perhaps this is a similar case with UHT milk. Reply oscar Actually – that might explain why UHT lasts longer even after boiling, but it still doesn’t explain why you can’t make yogurt out of it. Hmmmm…….. Reply John you can’t make yogurt because when they use “ultra high temperatue” to heat the milk they kill all the bacteria which is necessary to make yogurt. Regular milk is not heated to such a high degree temperature which still has bacteria in it to make cheese and yogurt. Reply Jon you are slightly incorrect, its true that UHT kills off the bacteria in the milk.

but its not that bacteria that are responsible for cheese making, strains of bacteria are added to the normal milk which use the lactose convert it to lactic acid and later on processed in to cheese, UHT is lactose free, therefore it can’t be used for cheese making or yogurt Hum… There are many lactose intolerant people in Spain, and they cannot drink UHT milk. It does have lactose then, right? Also, I have made yogurt out of UHT milk 😀 Reply Donna Stubbs Hi! I came accross this article as I’ve been googling “Why does long life milk taste better in Australia?” My family immigrated to AU early last year from the USA and I NEVER would drink shelf milk in the US. Yet when I worked at a grocery store here in AU, many many people would buy long life (boxed) milk so I thought I’d try it. It tastes great! My friend from South Africa had the same experience which long life milk in Africa and said that she, too, uses long life milk here in AU and is in complete agreement that it tastes the same as pasteurized milk.

I’m going to continue my search to see if I can get an answer to this question but evidently, the Aussies have something other parts of the world do not. With all the heat here-its just not economical to buy refrigerated milk and keeping long life milk that I can pop in the fridge whenever the kids need milk for their cereal is so much better than running into town the night before! I feel better knowing that the milk doesn’t have BGH (bovine growth hormone) in it here too. Reply paul all i can say if they replace fresh milk in the USA this crap. I glad that I live in Iowa cause i will just go out to the country and buy unpasteurized milk straight from the farmer , or milk his cows myself. Also if this happens i can see it going back to the old days where everyone that owns a farm will have at least one cow for there family It kinda ironic if we ask me in the USA everyone says how bad processed foods, pesticides, etc are for you buy organic , eat healthier etc. and now they want to give u processed milk lol makes no sense Reply Raquel I came across this article while looking other information up. I am here in the U.S.

and have tried Hershey’s UHT milk and enjoyed it. My mom brought it home because someone had given it to her. Thanks for explaining how it has such a long shelf life. I was curious to know how that was possible. Reply Franco Thanks for this well written explanation of UHT milk. I just got back from Peru and was explaining to my wife the milk there and decided to google it and found your article and read it out loud to her. Reply Dongstein “. The same voices who say that the pasteurization process rearranges the protein structures of milk say that the UHT process does this even more. They may be right.” Firstly, if standard and UHT Pasteurization of milk altered proteins in the milk it would denature them making cottage cheese. And secondly, it does not matter how denatured the proteins of milk are our stomachs are filled with warm dilute hydrochloric acid which would certainly do this anyway. So any concern over the “altering of proteins in milk” is baseless and furthermore irrelevant. Reply rphb UHT milk does not only taste disgusting, it is also very bad for you health, as it contains none of the beneficial protein structures that raw milk does.

(the proteins are destroyed in the heat treatment much like an egg is fundamentally transformed when cooked. I think most people would prefer milk that taste good, and is good for you, rather then milk that has a disgusting burned taste and can actually provoke your immune system to give you allergies. So to answer your question, no, UHT is not the future of milk, it is just a mistake like the 400 degree compass that will cease to be in thirty years or so. Why Some Milk Is Not Refrigerated (and an explanation of UHT) - 100 Days of Real Food 100 Days of Real Food Why Some Milk Is Not Refrigerated (and an explanation of UHT) by Lisa on WhatsApp Shares 2K When we were in Europe last month I shared how almost all of the milk options we saw in the supermarket are not refrigerated and are considered “shelf stable.” It stirred up quite a bit of discussion on Facebook … Have you ever noticed how some milk here in the US is not refrigerated either? Why is it that these small individual sized organic milk containers in the US aren’t sold cold?

If you haven’t already noticed almost all the commercialized organic milk options here in the US are Ultra High-Temperature Pasteurized (UHT) – which is actually the same process widely used in Europe – but that still doesn’t answer why some versions are refrigerated and some aren’t. The only difference is the packaging. Just like the pictured Organic Valley “Single Serve” milk boxes, almost all European milk is UHT and put into what is called aseptic (i.e. sterilized) packaging. UHT milk can last for several months in this type of packaging without spoiling…at least until you open it at which point the shelf life does shorten and it does need to be stored in the fridge. What is UHT (and is it good or bad)? UHT stands for Ultra High-Temperature Pasteurization (also referred to as Ultra Pasteurization or UP ) and means that milk is heated to about 280 degrees F for 2 seconds, which kills more bacteria (both good and bad) than traditional pasteurization therefore giving the milk a much longer shelf life before it spoils.

Compare this to other milk here in the US, which is typically High Temperature Short Time Pasteurized (minus the “ultra” and shortened to HTST) indicating it has been heated to 165°F for 15 seconds. So which type of pasteurization is the better choice? Well, it depends on who you ask and what your criteria is… Producers and retailers – and even some consumers – think UHT milk is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Just think of the cost savings if refrigeration is not required after production, during delivery, or once it arrives to the store – not to mention the extended shelf life. Also, in Europe many people don’t have the mega-sized refrigerators that are so common here in the US so having one less thing to refrigerate is pretty convenient. Apparently Europeans are fine with the idea of warm, shelf-stable milk, and since it is a rather practical choice that is the majority of what consumers purchase there. Now here in the US I haven’t exactly heard people singing the praises for UHT. Yes, it may be more convenient, but from a health standpoint while the higher temperature kills even more potentially bad bacteria – the good bacteria unfortunately goes with it.

One article even calls UHT milk “dead milk” – wow, that’s pretty harsh. I have to agree that I am a little leery of UHT even here in the state of North Carolina where raw milk is not legal for human consumption. I do have to say though that if organic UHT milk was the only organic option in my area – that is definitely what I would choose over conventional. What is your take on UHT milk (please share in the comments)? So why isn’t shelf stable milk sold here like it is in Europe? A large Italian food company called Parmalat actually tried to take the US dairy industry by storm with their little boxes of shelf-stable UHT milk in the early 90’s, but Americans were just not fond of the idea. The reason – we apparently still value the idea of fresh milk, although ironically enough if you are buying your milk from a big box organic dairy company it is likely not much “fresher” than the luke-warm milk sitting on the shelves in Europe (again the only difference is the packaging). I am the first to admit I am guilty as charged.

I was one of those “crazy Americans” searching high and low for refrigerated milk when we were food shopping in France. I just could not buy into the idea of the warm, boxed milk that lined the shelves. I looked at the labels and saw that they were UHT (something I am familiar with, but do try to avoid at home) so I kept looking and somehow managed to find one lonely brand that offered a few cold bottles of milk in the cheese aisle. I didn’t even look to see if that version was also UHT and just went with it because I was so pleased to be able to find what I was “used to” at home. Check out my Milk 101 post to learn all about the different types of milk that are available here in the US (including low-fat vs. whole) and what kind our family chooses to drink on a regular basis (hint: it is not any of the choices listed in the chart above.) What kind of milk do you buy (and why)? Sponsor Shoutout: Lunchbox Love Before I let you go, I have to make sure you know about our sponsor Lunchbox Love .

Just in time for back-to-school, they are offering 16 new volumes of cards – including all new facts, jokes, trivia, and positive messages – that you can put in your child’s lunchbox each day. We started sending these cards in our girls’ lunches last year, and they honestly adore them. Our oldest daughter shares the cards with her entire lunch table and both girls routinely give us a hard time if we ever forget to add one to their lunch box before sending them off to school! I feel like these are a great way to make the “real food” lunches I lovingly pack just as fun as all the cartoon-laden packaged foods their friends might be eating. Sure, I could write my own little cards, but I could never be as creative as the Lunchbox Love crew. So I think it is totally worth the cost – plus since the cards come on fairly thick paper they could easily be reused a few times. We hope you enjoy!

What you don't know about organic milk - NaturalNews.com What you don't know about organic milk Monday, May 14, 2012 by: John McKiernan Popular on Facebook 62K EVERYTHING IS RIGGED: Medicine, science, elections, the media, money, education, search engines, social media... you are living in a fabricated fairy tale 40K All-out effort to destroy Trump PROVES he's not part of the establishment... NOT an insider... 'Trump' movement has grown way beyond one man's actions or words 37K Hexavalent chromium (chromium-6) was just found in 75% of drinking water... the mass chemical suicide of America is under way 36K Electoral victory for Hillary already LOCKED IN via massive bribery... George Soros admits on video... democracy be damned... THEFT of the presidency already complete 35K Chaos will erupt across America in less than 100 days... no matter who wins the election 27K The defeat of Hillary Clinton just dealt a devastating blow to Monsanto, Big Pharma and the corrupt vaccine industry 23K Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson just sold out to Big Pharma...

says children should be forcibly injected with mercury at gunpoint... claims government 'science' overrides medical freedom 23K Facebook goes full ORWELLIAN... now blocking all stories mentioning the keyword phrase 'm-nd-t-ry v-cc-n-t--ns' 20K Hillary the CHEAT! Clinton caught wearing covert earpiece during last night's debate with Trump... brazen dishonesty on display yet again 19K Staged Zika pandemic was engineered by globalist governments to justify the aerial bombardment of awakening populations with toxic chemicals 18K TRUMP MIRACLE... DEPLORABLES TAKE BACK AMERICA... LEFTISTS TOTAL FREAK OUT 17K Natural News announces economic boycott of CNN corporate sponsors, including GEICO, WellsFargo, Sprint, Dodge and ETrade 16K The defeated left turns to HATE: Liberals unleash beatings, death threats and calls for mass murder of Trump supporters 15K Tweet (NaturalNews) Most people fork over the extra money for organic foods with the idea that they are doing something good for their health. In reality there are some products marked organic that may be worth the price and others that are definitely not.

Today we're going to expose the latter as we uncover the truth behind organic milk. Pasteurization The most important factor to look at when buying milk is the pasteurization process. Pasteurization is the process of heating food to increase its shelf life. The higher the temperatures, the more micro life is killed and the longer the shelf life. The pasteurization process that most non-organic milk in the U.S. undergoes is called High Temperature Short Time (HTST). It consists of heating the milk to a temperature of 161 degrees for 15 to 20 seconds. The purpose of the this pasteurization process is to increase the shelf life and kill bacteria in the milk that could make you sick. With HTST pasteurization, milk lasts a couple of weeks at most. While most non-organic milk undergoes this pasteurization process, the majority of the organic milk in the U.S. is ultra high temperature (UHT) pasteurized. This means it is heated to a temperature of at least 280 degrees for 1-2 seconds.

This type of pasteurization kills virtually all of the enzymes and bacteria to the point that the milk cannot even be cultured to make yogurt or kefir. It is commonly referred to as "dead milk". The shelf life of UHT milk is 6 to 9 months and it doesn't even need to be refrigerated. UHT pasteurization allows organic milk to be shipped long distanced and sit on warehouse and grocery shelves for months before it needs to be sold. UHT organic milk also typically costs about twice as much as regular milk. Why is UHT pasteurized milk so bad? The micro life that exists within milk is needed in order to properly digest and absorb the nutrients in it. Without it the body perceives the proteins in the milk as foreign and mounts an immune response. The body is unable to digest the casein proteins in milk without these necessary enzymes. The proteins themselves are also changed at temperatures this extreme. So while it is true that organic milk is produced by cows that are fed organic feed and are free of antibiotics and hormones, UHT processing eliminates most of the health benefits from milk. Raw milk and low-temp pasteurization The most live and active milk is raw and unpasteurized.

However, this option is not available everywhere due to safety concerns and some state laws. Most people still consider drinking raw milk to be completely safe. Outside of raw milk, the best choice for consumers is low temperature pasteurized milk that is heated to a temperature of 145 degrees for 30 minutes. This pasteurization process kills any potentially harmful bacteria while leaving the majority of the micro life in the milk untouched. Unfortunately, this low temperature pasteurization is uncommon. If you are unable to find low temperature pasteurized milk the next best choice is hormone and antibiotic free HTST milk. This option is thankfully becoming more available, particularity in health food stores, due to public demand for healthier options. If you see organic milk with the letters UHT on it, or an expiration date months in the future, you're much better off not purchasing it. Sources for this Article Pasteurization Means DEAD Food… : Lee Kemp | Motivational Speaker, Entrepreneur, Olympic Wrestling Coach, Olympian, America’s First Three-Time World Champion, Nutrition Consultant Pasteurization Means DEAD Food… When you read that something is pasteurized... what does that mean?

Pasteurization is a process of heating a food (usually a liquid), to a minimum of 145 degrees F (up to over 200 degrees F) for a definite length of time, and then cooling it immediately, to slow the microbial growth. Pasteurization can be done by: Flash Pasteurization (high-temperature, short-time treatment); Slow Pasteurization (low-temperature, longer-time treatment); Steam Pasteurization and Irradiation Pasteurization (exposing food to gamma radiation which can be referred to as Cold Pasteurization). Pasteurization of foods does only one thing, really... and that's to increase the foods shelf life. INCREASING SHELF LIFE.. INCREASES PROFITS OF FOOD PRODUCERS. All Pasteurization is BAD because it kills ALL the Living Enzymes in the FOOD and severely diminishes the nutritive value of the food. What's so important about Living Enzymes in our Food? In Nature, Enzymes are present in all raw (unheated, unprocessed) foods, including milk. Certain enzymes are responsible for causing foods to naturally spoil or go bad. This is why fruit naturally falls from a tree in Nature when unpicked.

The fruit will automatically spoil, shrivel up, and fall to the Earth and biodegrade. Raw milk will naturally spoil after a few days. So will orange juice. So how do companies get milk and orange juice and other beverages to remain unspoiled in their packaging (cans, jars, boxes, etc.) for periods of weeks and months at a time?....The answer is pasteurization! Pasteurizing the food (or beverage) kills the enzymes, including those that cause spoiling. This is Natures way of letting us know when food is bad (usually a short window of time). Then, food producers, for the sake of profits, insures that the food won’t spoil by adding preservatives to further lengthen the shelf life of the so-called dead food. Now the food or beverage can sit on a supermarket shelf for a few weeks if necessary and not spoil. The simple fact is that when preservatives are added to foods and beverages it means that the food or beverage is DEAD, and what we are about to eat or drink is DEAD! Think about it... we only preserve that which is dead, right? We don’t have to preserve that which is alive.

Dead human bodies are preserved with embalming fluid (formaldehyde) to keep them from spoiling (rotting, decaying) before the funeral. Well, when you add preservatives to food and beverages, you’re basically embalming the food or beverage because it is dead too. Only dead things are embalmed (preserved). Anytime you see the word ‘preservative’ on something you are about to consume, it is a sign that the product is DEAD! For more detail about preservatives, see the article “Half Dead” by clicking the link Now you know that that pasteurized milk and fruit juice (i.e. orange juice, apple juice) in your fridge is not pasteurized to kill bacteria, but to keep it in a its packaging (carton, bottle etc.) for a few weeks for purposes of profit. Truth About Pasteurization including Flash Pasteurized That ‘flash pasteurized’ orange juice or apple juice is flash pasteurized to keep the dead juice in the packaging (jar or carton), or I'll now call casket for a few weeks as well.

Flash pasteurized is nothing but a fancy name that still implies the thing has been heated up to kill enzymes or enzymatic activity in it. Pasteurization has to be at least 145 degrees to be effective but living foods are killed at temperatures beyond 118 degrees, so 145 degrees clearly kills all life in a natural food, be it fruit, vegetables, or animal milk (which humans really should not be drinking by the way). Truth About UHT – Ultra High Temperature Milk And what about UHT (ultra-high-temperature) milk? This stuff is completely DEAD! Why would you need to heat anything you're going to eat or drink to over 280 degrees? UHT milk is sold off the shelf at room temperature. However, UHT milk is ultra-pasteurized at 280 degrees. Now you know anything processed with this much heat is really dead. This is why UHT milk will keep up to six months unrefrigerated. I believe the consumption of processed foods will most certainly "process "the person that continually consumes it. In other words I believe it will make you sick over time.

To process means ‘to change’ and you will most certainly change (for the worse) from consuming all this processed so-called food (and beverage) out here today. Pasteurization Equals Dead Products Pasteurization is a code word for ‘dead products.’ Don’t be fooled by such terms (usually serving as suffixes) such as ‘ultra’ and ‘flash.’ If the word ‘pasteurization’ follows these terms, it still denotes pasteurization has taken place, and thus the killing of the food or beverage has also taken place. Ultra simply means ‘extreme high’ and ‘flash’ means ‘quickly' heated and cold pasteurized means 'nuked'.

Question: If you see the letters UHT on a food or milk carton, what does it mean?
Answer: Ultra Heat Treatment